I was a little bit worried about Archer last week, as the show gave us a very funny episode, but an episode that felt like it could have come from any old show, not our beloved FX series. Adam Reed's earlier show (to bring up a comparison) Frisky Dingo had a similarly off second season premiere, but in that case it was the humor that wasn't as up to snuff, not the feel of the show. And perhaps it was how good FD eventually got in its second season, that I was expecting a much better return from Archer. So it all regards, maybe my expectations were a little high. Maybe.
Regardless, I should have had faith in Reed and his team, as “A Going Concern” proved tonight. I has actually forgotten how Archer starts off slow and low key sometimes, but eventually escalates every joke until the craziness boils over into one hilarious mess. So I was worried for the first few minutes, until the action really started to get good.
But those few intermediate minutes were a bit brutal for someone who didn't wish to be let down again by this show. Regardless of all this talk of the show's skill at escalation, Archer is, ultimately, a joke machine, a show that tends to live and die by how many good lines it can deliver in a night. (And when the lines are as funny as they are on a show like this, this is a good thing.) Yet the lines tonight – while funny, as all of the quotes below will prove – weren't quite the gut busters that I have come to expect from this show. So while those fee minutes were admittedly only a small section of the show, when your episodes only have a 20 minute run time, every minute tends to count,
But enough bagging on the episode, because as I said, the majority of it was fantastic. Pam's barely explained obsession with Jamaica and pot (and screaming “Racist!” every time someone passed on her offer of a puff from a joint) was the kind of off-the-wall humor that the show does so well. So was the return of Kreeger (yay!) as we learned that he has no PHD and uses LSD to induce love in females. (Like Cheryl/Carol, who also returned tonight, but felt a bit underused. Can you “under use” a cartoon character?) But perhaps the greatest bit was the continued digs at ISIS disgusting carpet. I believe that that show has made jokes about it last season, but here is was the perfect runner, as it served as a kind of metaphor for the company and the people who work for it, and just why it was a terrible idea for ODIN to buy the company out.
And that, I think, it ultimately what made this week's outing far more successful than last week's. By keeping all of the characters in the office, the show made sure that we kept the humor based on these characters and what we know about them. Or sometimes what we don't. Did you know that Ray used to be married to a lesbian and attended a “Pray Away the Gay” bible study? I sure didn't, but I still laughed, and the joke itself fits in with the kind of gay man that we know Ray to be. As long as the show can stick along these lines, it's gonna do just fine.
What did everybody else think?
Additional Thoughts:
“And then it was 'Drill, baby, drill!'”
The pamphlet Len Drexler held for the cruise read “Seize the Seas!” HA!
“Well, figuratively. I don't know about the actual chair.”
“Those are your words...and similarly mine.”
“Who are you, my cat?”
“...or LSD.”
“What are you doing? Making robot birds?”
“Barry, is that how you get ants?,,,,Yes it is, Other Barry. Yes it is.”
“I was just talking to my gun. Not with it. There's a pretty big difference.”
“That takes one doll.” “Not if there's a gang rape.”
“Do reverse cowgirl, because that carpet is seriously heinous.”
“For the love of all that is green, take me and Rabbert to the lettuce store.”
“Not rattling. Kreeger stapled it.”
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